My favorite poem thus far is "The Guitarist Tunes Up" by Frances Cornford. It's simple, yet full of meaning and imagery. The guitar is personified to be a woman and the musician is a man in love, "a man with a loved woman." In the poem the guitarist pays close attention to his guitar while tuning it, "inquiring with delight what slight essential things she had to say."
The most striking part of the poem to me is that it doesn't say that the musician plays the guitar; instead the poet writes that "he and she" play together. It's not just the musician that makes the music, the instrument takes part in the process also. By personifying the guitar as a woman, the author is pointing out the partnership that exists between a man and a woman, a musician and his guitar.
Nice analysis. I'm surprised you were able to grab so much out of such a short poem. It is filled with a lot of details and metaphors and when I read it I had to read each line over and over to fully grasp it's meaning. I also liked how the last line shows that the guitar/woman and the man must play together, the man doesn't just play the it.
Posted by: Colin Michael P. | October 27, 2005 at 12:05 AM
WORD!
Posted by: TrishK. | October 27, 2005 at 01:34 PM
I really like this poem and I wonder why it's not talked about more.
Posted by: Digipatd | October 01, 2008 at 10:20 PM